Ed Sheeran in Vancouver

Many months ago we purchased tickets for Ed Sheeran in Vancouver. It was a stressful event but at least we got tickets, unlike the Taylor Swift concert. Carter isn't a fan so it was Kerry, Callie, Myself, Melissa and Kathy attending. Callie had made us friendship bracelets before I left on my Denver trip. It's not really an Ed thing but she was still making hem for Taylor for the upcoming movie and wanted some for Ed. I CNC'd a wood portion with the five mathematics symbols. Last minute she also decided we should have matching t-shirts. She had a divid t-shirt from his last concert so we all got similar ones with the remaining symbols.

The concert was amazing. Last time was at GM Place and I had to go alone because Kerry couldn't make it and no one else know who he was. This one was in BC Place. I think Ed is purposely looking to get the record for every stadium he plany because he made his stage circular. This ensures every seat can be filled plus the floor. BC Place hit 65,000+. The other major difference was that he brought a band. He could do it without but there are a few songs that benefit. His band mates were off the stage in front of each of the pillars and were only on for a few songs. I felt the sound in Seattle was better but the lighting here was great. We also got to listen to Ed and Khalid do 'Beautiful People', one of my favourite songs.

 

A Work Trip to Denver

At the end of August I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Denver. As per usual I went down a day early so that I could take in some of the tourist spots. The flight there was uneventful and I got to my hotel around 1:00p. Unfortunately, most of the things I wanted to go to closed at 4:00p so I had to wait until the next day to go to the zoo. It's not a bad zoo as zoo's go. The habitats were all quite natural though I found them a bit small. It was also a little sad to hear all the kids talking about which animals had recently died. Not sure if it's above average but it was definitely on their mind.

My next destination was the Museum of Nature and Science. On the science side it was much like Science World with interactive exhibits on various topics including the human body, rocks and minerals and global warming. Was a pleasant surprise to find a US city like Colorado reporting on the science side of things instead of selling us on the 'we need oil for a while' message. On the nature side of the house there were hundred's of stuffed animals in vignettes of their natural habitat. It was very well done though I wonder how they got a hold of so many animals to stuff including polar bears, buffalo and eagles.

My favourite destination was the Denver Botanical Gardens. You can tell a lot of donation money went into this place. There were ponds, atriums and art galleries throughout the property. It would be a lovely location for a wedding though I think they cater to mostly larger groups. There was a permanent tent that was about 500 feet long with pinpoint lights throughout. The atrium was made of concrete which must of been fun to engineer. I finally got to see a Chihuly statue in person. It was an enormous sculpture in yellows and oranges. I'm surprised it manages to make it through the winter. It looks so delicate.

After my day on my own I headed to my other hotel to start the conference. It was being held on a golf course / retirement property where one of the founders of the company hosting the event lives. The whole area was very nice but definitely car centric. You would need to take a car just to get to the closest corner store. The conference was a bit of a different experience for me because there were only about 200 attendees. Most conferences I attend have thousands of participants so it's easy to hide and concentrate on the sessions. With so few people there was always someone that wanted to talk directly to you. Still fun though with some great food.

As a team we managed to break away from the conference for a team building event. The Atlanta Braves were in town to play the Colorado Rockies. It was effectively one of the top teams in the league against one of the worst teams in the league though it wasn't exactly a blowout. A few runs every couple innings and no major mistakes. The weather was perfect in the high twenties with sunny skies. The game goes quickly with the new pitch clock. I didn't bother getting any food but we did go out for wings afterwards. The whole trip was a lot of fun. I wouldn't recommend Denver as a destination but if you need to go there it's a very nice city. 

Callie's Final Dance Recital

It was a bitter sweet final dance recital for Callie this year. She's aged out of her dance school that she's been attending since she was a tiny sugar cube in kindergarten. As she's gotten older she's had to take classes at the nearby studio as well as the Ridge studio. This means she ends up having dances in multiple shows. Plus they have a special dance just for the graduates that gets performed at every show. I attended two of the shows including the one on Saturday that we would typically attend plus her final final dance. Kerry attended all four. It was also an honour for Callie to be asked to do the artwork for the show. The theme was "She's So Fierce". Each dance was themed around powerful woman and the studio owner picked a subset of them and asked for art work of here faces. The four chosen were Rosa Parks, Princess Diana, Michelle Obama and Celine Dion. The artwork came out great and it ended up on the programs plus a set of t-shirts for graduates and staff and for purchase.

Callie did great on all her dances. I still remember some of the earlier recitals where we were introduced to the idea of the 'Quick Change'. This was when a girl had only a song or two in-between to get dressed for the next song. We were very worried that it would be her turn and something would happen and she wouldn't come out. It took a few years before we realized how great dancing has been for her. The structure of regular classes helped her a lot and she never missed a quick change. To be honest I'm always amazed how none of the girls miss quick change. We might not miss the trips to take her to the Ridge but we will miss this annual recital. 

 

Callie's Grad Year

Callie is graduating from high school this year. <Insert comment about how time flies.> Grade 11 was not a lot of fun with Chemistry and PE but grade 12 seemed like a breeze in comparison. She did excellent in all of her classes with a highlight of weight training where she got 100%. It sounds like if you showed up to that one you were doing well compared to the rest of the kids. I'm proud to say she was excepted to SFU to pursue a career in teaching. For SFU you submit your expected grades for grade 12 and they judge you on that. I was mildly worried about English as it was tracking lower but she significantly increased her mid-term grade and hit her goal with eze.

I had expected it to be a costly year but I was still amazed at the number of things that came up. There was a number of fund raisers we contributed to, a grad dress, a winter formal dress, tickets to various things, grad clothes, limos, hair, makeup, dress fittings and more. I suspect that some kids didn't show up to things just because they couldn't afford it which is a shame. Kerry was on the grad committee and they raised money for their dry grad but a lot of the other items were left up to parents to cover. Carter will be slightly cheaper just because he's a boy but still won't be cheap. Score another one for the female tax. I'm not even going to try to guess at the actual cost. I suppose it was worth it because she did really seem to enjoy all the events. 

One of the unexpected events for me was the 'Winter Formal'. When I went to high school there seemed to be at least a few dances every year. Callie's high school only seemed to focus on dances for the graduation year and I'm sure covid impacted some things as well. The Winter Formal happened before Christmas and Callie said she went easy on us for the dress and didn't have anyone do her hair and makeup. Feeling blessed.

Full on grad activities got rolling with the grad dinner in June. There was an option for parents to come which was kind of useless. The kids came on their own via limo and we drove to the golf course on our own. We sat around until they were ready to sit down for dinner at which point we listened to a few speeches from the back of the room and then left. Cost was $5 per parent. I t think things would have been better if they let us focus on getting pictures of everyone. We got a few but everyone sat down for dinner before we had a chance to get any with her friends. I did get a watered down lemonade. 

After grad dinner the kids got bussed back to the school for their dry grad. Attendance was up from previous years which worked out well for the fund raising committee. They fund raised based on a certain number of kids so every kid above that was extra money to spend. They ended up giving the kids all a gift card. The grad was casino themed and Kerry volunteered for the event. She only really had to take tickets but ended up staying until 5:00 in the morning with the kids. Luckily it was a professional development day the next day which is good for the kids but Kerry still had to go to school. She managed to make it in to work. 

We had a family bbq after grad dinner weekend, prompted by Melissa who had arranged something similarly elaborate for her son and niece. She sent down the candy bar signs so we definitely had to do the same for Callie. Attendance was family and close friends including Kennedy who had technically finished school in December but had come back from university to attend the grad ceremonies.

We finished the year off at the Bell Centre with the graduation ceremony. I was very glad they had it there as they have nicer seats. I could not have sanded sitting through 300+ kids walking across the stage if we had to be on hard bleachers. The ceremony was a few speeches by administration, the valedictorian and then each kid had a short paragraph read as they walked across the state. They encouraged minimal cheating but didn't hold back their diploma if we did cheer. The main reason was to avoid overlap with cheering and the next kids description. 

Great work Callie!

 Grad Pictures

Spring Formal

Dress Shopping

Grad Dinner

Dry Grad

Grad Ceremony

Callie's Car Accident

Sporty go in its second car accident this spring. The first was a few years ago when it was side swiped while parked out on the street. This one was when Callie was driving home from school. It was a bit wet and the traffic was stop and go. She didn't do anything wrong and had just slowed due to traffic in front of her. The car behind her rear ended her. There wasn't too much damage to Sporty as we have a hitch which took the brunt of the hit but it did mean that several panels had to be replaced. The cost was more than I would have expected but I guess it's easier to just replace the entire panel rather than try to fix one.

The car that hit her took most of the damage. I felt sorry for the driver as he was a student at Callie's school and was working on the car himself. It ended up taking quite a bit of damage due to the hitch. When it happened Callie pulled over and then both drivers phoned their parents. I was at home just a few blocks away so I hopped on my bike to go and help. It took a bit to find her as she had sent me to the slightly wrong location but I did eventually get there. Our car was fine to drive but it was questionable for the other vehicle. He lived nearby so I followed him home to make sure he made it. Damage is all fixed on our car now. Sporty has lived a hard life. 

 

Carter's Band Year

Carter had another successful year of band. He is in band as a class which means every day is either band or PE. Many of his friends from elementary school chose to sign up for band as well which is good. He plays the saxophone and unlike Callie who brought her flute home with her all the time, he leaves his instrument at school and just does his practice during class. He is also in the Jazz band club which gets together twice a week after school which gives him additional playing time. Being on the saxophone for Jazz band is a bit more useful than the flute. Callie was in Jazz band for a year as well in grade 8 but you could tell the flutes didn't play a prominent part.

There were several concerts this year, some focused on the regular band classes and some focused on Jazz band. I typically try to only attend until Carter has finished playing. Many of the songs they play are not very popular and we are usually on hard bleachers. It does get harder as he gets older though because they play in order of grade. This means that by grade 12 I'll have to stick around until the end. At least the play gets better with each year. There was one fun event that had some Star Wars songs including the conductor in Jedi garb with a light sabre. Maybe next year I'll have R2 done enough that he can attend as well. Carter has gotten a lot better and had several solos during the year. Imagine if he practiced at home!

Carter's Basketball Year

Carter's grade 9 basketball coach organized a spring league team. Typically the team would only play in the fall half of the school year but there are opportunities to create teams that might be school based but aren't actually school supported. Cost was $250 for the year which doesn't sound too bad but we soon realized spring basketball gets expensive. Without school funding all the tournaments needed to pay for space and for refs. This was done by charging spectators anywhere from $10 to $115 per day for a weekend. That means if you have two parents going for all three days it's another $70. (There is a discount for three days.) I saw a set of grandparents getting in one game and they weren't happy about it.

Carter's team consisted of grade 8, 9 and some 10's and was 17 players at its peak. The coach was good about making sure everyone got fairly equal playing time. Not the best way of developing individuals but more fun for the kids. Carter has improved significantly considering basketball was his first organized sport. He scored 8 points in one game which is a new family record. (My highest game was six points.) The team did well in one tournament and decided to go up a league but should probably have spent more time developing in the lower league. They didn't win any games for the rest of the season. Hopefully they do better in the fall with this experience.